characteristic

[kar-ik-tuh-ris-tik]

adjective

1. Also characteristical. pertaining to, constituting, or indicating the character or peculiar quality of a person or thing; typical; distinctive.

   Red and gold are the characteristic colors of autumn.

   Synonyms: peculiar, special

noun

1. a distinguishing feature or quality.

   Generosity is his chief characteristic.

   Synonyms: trait, property, attribute

2. Mathematics.

   1. the integral part of a common logarithm.

   2. the exponent of 10 in a number expressed in scientific notation.

   3. the smallest positive integer n such that each element of a given ring added to itself n times results in 0.

characteristic

/ ˌkærɪktəˈrɪstɪk /

noun

1. a distinguishing quality, attribute, or trait

2. maths

   1. the integral part of a common logarithm, indicating the order of magnitude of the associated number Compare mantissa

      the characteristic of 2.4771 is 2

   2. another name for exponent, used esp in number representation in computing

adjective

1. indicative of a distinctive quality, etc; typical

characteristic

1. The part of a logarithm to the base 10 that is to the left of the decimal point. For example, if 2.749 is a logarithm, 2 is the characteristic.

2. Compare mantissa

Other Word Forms

• characteristically adverb
• noncharacteristic adjective
• noncharacteristically adverb
• quasi-characteristic adjective
• quasi-characteristically adverb
• uncharacteristic adjective
• uncharacteristically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of characteristic¹

First recorded in 1655–65; from Greek charaktēristikós ( character, -istic )

Synonym Study

See feature.

Example Sentences

The four Strategy preferred issues have different characteristics.

Read more on Barron's

The letter concluded with a long list of various types of ferns, complete with their distinguishing characteristics.

Read more on Literature

Mr Wollny, who is now the director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig, said they displayed several characteristics unique to the composer.

Read more on BBC

Wollny was fascinated by the works from the outset because they contained several characteristics that were unique to Bach during that period.

Read more on Barron's

At 3% of respondents, this group was too small to reveal characteristics.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• aspect 
• attribute 
• component 
• essence 
• flavor 
• nature 
• peculiarity 
• personality 
• quality 
• style 
• symptom 
• temperament 
• tendency 
• tone 
• virtue